Childhood Nightmare Explained? (somewhat disturbing)

That explains a lot, actually. We were living in Spain at the time and I don’t think I would have seen Darth Vader before (our tapes of Spanish TV from the 80s hint that they weren’t that big on Star Wars and its spinoffs but loved “The A Team” and “Knight Rider”), so I was always confused about why the monster had that helmet and strange, expressionless face.

I might see that monster in my dreams again now, only this time as he truly was… A living breathing human being with his face obscured and his explicit directive to kill me. A man stripped of everything that made him more than a machine. A man who- apart from his Stahlhelm- was so much like me.

I don’t know if I’ll sleep too well tonight.

EDIT 3/21/16: Strangely, the gas mask was probably not from my WWI life since those were not in service until 1916 (neither were the helmets). The more likely source of this nightmare was a gas mask that Phil’s father had from his time in the war. Phil explained in an interview that his father would put on the gas mask and that it terrified him as a child.